Each year, Edge.org [5] editor John Brockman poses a provocative question to a select group of thinkers. For this year’s installment, nearly 200 brainy contributors were asked: “What do you consider the most recent scientific news?” [6] Here’s what they had to say.

As Brockman notes, “We now live in a world in which the rate of change is the biggest change.” Science, therefore, has “become a big story, if not the big story: news that will stay news.” But given the insane amount of science-related news that makes the rounds on a daily basis, it’s not immediately clear which sciency tidbits are the ones we should be focused on. 

To help him parse through this staggering amount of science—and to provide a 50-foot perspective on where we are right now—Brockman recruited some of the biggest names in science, technology, art, and philosophy. Contributors included Martin Rees [7], Steven Pinker [8], Gloria Origgi [9], Freeman Dyson [10], Max Tegmark [11], Judith Rich Harris [12], Peter Gabriel [13], Nina Jablonski [14], Bill Joy [15], Michael Shermer [16], Kevin Kelly [17], Gregory Benford [18], Sean Carroll [19], Frank Tipler [20], Steve Omohundro [21], and many, many others. ...